Month: September 2016

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year…the boots, the sweaters, the fall leaves, the pumpkin spice umm, everything :)! I love soups and am always looking for a good hearty soup recipe to try for dinner. This soup was super easy to make and very delicious. It also made plenty for leftover lunches. We paired this with a mixed green salad. I prepped a lot of this the night before to cut down on the time it took – listed at 1 hour total – (we had wild rice pilaf the night before so I made extra and I went ahead and chopped the veggies the night before also). Special thanks to my friend Jess for finding and trialing the recipe before me (and sharing it for lunch!), and for Cooking Classy for the recipe and photo. I changed some things to try and make it a little lower in fat – I used 3 tbsp of olive oil instead of 3 tbsp of butter when making my roux and used 1% milk (I also used this in place of the heavy cream – 2 cups of milk total). You can find the original at http://www.cookingclassy.com/2014/02/creamy-chicken-wild-rice-soup/

3/4 cup uncooked wild rice blend

1 cup chopped yellow onion (from about 1 small onion)

1 cup diced carrots (from 2 medium)

1 cup diced celery (from 2 – 3 stalks)

7 Tbsp butter, diced, divided (or can use at least some olive oil)

1 clove garlic, minced

4 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth

1/4 tsp of each dried thyme, sage and rosemary

Salt and ground black pepper, to taste

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, diced

1/2 cup flour

1 1/2 cups milk

1/2 cup heavy cream (or just use extra milk)

1 tsp lemon zest

Prepare wild rice blend as directed on the package.

In a large pot, melt 1 tbsp butter (or you can use olive oil) and add carrots, celery, and onion, simmer until soft. Add chicken broth, thyme, sage, and rosemary, garlic, salt, and pepper to taste (or whatever other spices you want – I added oregano).

Once boiling, add diced chicken, cover and continue to boil for 10 minutes or so, until chicken is cooked.

While the chicken is cooking, melt remaining 6 tbsp of butter (or use olive oil – I did 1/2 butter and 1/2 oil) and whisk in 1/2 cup flour, stirring until blended. Cook for 1.5 minutes, then slowly add milk (I did all 2 cups at this point since I wasn’t using cream), continue to whisk until smooth and cook until thickened.

Add flour/butter/milk mixture to the soup and stir.

Stir in cooked rice.

At this point, you can let the soup simmer until you are ready to eat, then stir in lemon zest, grab your favorite soup bowl and spoon, and enjoy!